


Blue Butterflies

by synvamp, TesseractTown



Category: RWBY
Genre: Butterflies, Chaos, Crack, M/M, Pranks, Sweet Revenge, Tai is a mischievous fellow, Valentines Day Chaos, minor poly str
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29433015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/synvamp/pseuds/synvamp, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TesseractTown/pseuds/TesseractTown
Summary: Tai decides to have a little fun when Qrow and Clover come to him for help with their Valentines Day plans.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Blue Butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentines day!! This was a fic collab with Syn and I. It was pretty chaotic to plan and write. BUT TILL SYN GETS ON AND LETS ME ADD HER AS A CO-CREATOR I CANT ADD HER.

Valentine's day means you just have the societal pressure to do something for your loved ones. But loved ones in the way of you want to smooch their face-off. Typical romance stuff. Sounds simple in the hypothetical, but in reality, is way harder than you would think it to be.

You see, Qrow wanted to do things right this year. He always heard about how Summer, Tai, and Raven always had the most romantic Valentine’s day. Well, Raven complains a lot but it always turned out fine. He wanted to do something extra special for Clover. To say “Hey! I want to have a day where we can have fun and a good laugh. I’m glad that you are in my life.” I feel they have been getting less and less with Clover’s job putting more work on him.

So he had the brilliant idea to ask Tai what Clover likes. They’ve all been living under the same roof for a while now, Qrow was sure that his boyfriend had told Tai _some_ juicy information. He finds Tai in the living room and he walks up, sitting down in the chair adjacent to him, swinging his legs up over the side, “Hey. Tai.”

Tai nods in acknowledgment in his direction, “Hey. Qrow.”

Tai has an obsession with repeating whatever greeting you so choose to greet them with. Which is a little annoying at times, but Qrow continues non nevertheless, “What should I do for Clover for Valentines day?"

Tai stares and Qrow in genuine shock, “Qrow? Doing Valentine's day? Am I dreaming? I think I need to go to the hospital.”

“Seriously! I want to do something nice for him since he’s been so great to everyone,” Qrow lowers his voice and mutters under his breath, “You’ve also always wanted to see me so love-stricken too.”

Tai smirks at Qrow, “Well you’re in luck for once. Ever since Clover has moved into this house I have gotten to know more about him. _Especially_ when you are away from the house and he’s in the shower.”

Qrow leans forward in the chair, “That sounds wrong but you're a married man continue on.”  
“He listens to rap at an obnoxiously loud level. I sometimes have to go yell at him to turn it down otherwise I’m going to lose my mind!”

Qrow snorts, “No way I wouldn’t know this Tai you are such a bad liar.”

Tai whips out his scroll and opens a video and tosses it to Qrow, “Watch.”

Qrow clicks play on the video and the video has some loud rap music with Tai screaming at Clover to turn it down, which Clover responds with ‘IM IN THE SHOWER YOU-’ Then Qrow’s eyes flash to an incoming text from the one and only Clover.

Fruity Looty: Come upstairs NOW! It’s AN EMERGENCY!

Qrow throws Tai’s phone back at him, “You have business it seems with someone.”

Tai looks down at his phone, looks up, and winks at Qrow, “Think about it. A nice drive with some rap music.”

Tai trudges his way upstairs, smirking to himself about the chaos he is causing. If Clover is about to ask him what he thinks he is about to ask him. Clover’s important immediate ‘Get up here!’ kind of questions usually mean something on the lines ‘I have a really dumb question for you!’

Tai opens the door when Clover dashes over to him and shakes his shoulders, “I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO FOR QROW ON VALENTINES DAY!”

Tai shushes him and closes the door, “Qrow is downstairs. Keep it down. What do you want to know?”

Clover pauses, “Somethings you know about his childhood that I don’t! Bring back some memories!”

Tai walks over to the bed and leans back into it, “Well, he used to be obsessed with butterflies when he was little. It was quite cute actually. He would run up to them, smile, and say hello. It was a mystery why he liked them so much. Him and his sister were so grumpy all the time. I couldn’t get him to smile even with my puns! Those butterflies were the only thing that made him smile!”

Tai pauses and glances to Clover, “Said he wanted to fly like them.”

Clover already had his phone pulled out and was looking up lepidopterariums in the area that he could take Qrow to, “Apparently we need to go skydiving someday. Close enough to flying. You’re just falling instead.”

Tai laughs and sits up, “I think that is the opposite of flying, Lucky. But now that I have sufficiently helped I will start to make dinner downstairs.”

Tai opens the door, “FYI his favorite color of butterfly is blue.”

\---xxx---

Qrow took a deep breath and tried to settle the fluttering in his stomach. Everyone always said it was like butterflies in your tummy when you felt like this. He grimaced as a little nausea kicked in as well. Not a nice thought.

_Don’t panic, it’ll be fine._

_Everything is ready. There’s no need to have some massive stress attack like a highly strung ghost at a vacuum cleaner convention Come on, pull yourself together!_

He’d hired the car downtown in Mantle. It was nice and new and shiny, the kind that he used to look at as a kid and dream of driving one day. He’d even found the exact song that Clover was listening to in the shower… although why exactly Tai had been recording his boyfriend in the shower was still a bit of a mystery.

But he found the song and he found the artist and he had two whole albums of “good”, loud, rap music all ready to go. He didn’t like rap himself, the themes seemed aggressive and the rapid-fire lyrics made his head spin, but whatever Clover wanted, that’s what he was going to get so apparently rap it was.

Qrow slowed the car and pulled up to the curb outside the house. Clover was waiting for him on the porch. A little twinge of admiration fluttered in his chest as he looked Clover over. He was wearing black dress pants and a black waistcoat with a dark green shirt. The sleeves were turned up to just below the elbows and the cut was just perfect. He was holding a bouquet of pale red roses and smiling his iridescent smile.

Qrow leaned over and opened the door.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, love,” he said, offering Qrow the flowers. “I wasn’t going to do flowers but these roses are the exact colour of your eyes and I couldn’t walk past them,” he smiled fondly as he caressed a soft petal between calloused fingers.

Qrow took the flowers and placed them carefully on the back seat, “Thanks Cloves, they’re beautiful. Come on, hop in!”

Clover took his seat and leaned over for a tender kiss. Qrow’s hand lingered on his jaw as he gazed into those soul-piercing teal eyes. “I’m so lucky to have you,” he said.

“Nuh-uh,” Clover said grinning (he’d taken that particular expression from Qrow and always grinned when he used it, dork), “I think you’ll find that I am the lucky one here,” he flicked his pin to illustrate the point.

“Maybe we’re both lucky,” Qrow conceded, giving Clover one last gentle kiss.

“So where are we going?” Clover asked, fastening his seatbelt.

“Nowhere,” Qrow said enigmatically.

“Ok?”

“We’re going to go for a cruise! Drive around with the windows down, crank some tunes… it’ll be like we’re teenagers again!”

“Well… that sounds charming. Let’s go!”

Qrow pulled out and headed towards the centre of town. When they were on a main road and settled in, he leaned over to flick on the stereo. He watched Clover out of the corner of his eye, excited to see the look on his face when the track kicked in.

He’d primed the stereo already and set the volume to a good booming bass sound so all he had to do was press play on the display. He hit the button and the track started, bass blaring and thumping beats just about shaking the chassis.

Clover’s eyes widened as he stared at the stereo.

“Bringing back some memories of your youth, lucky charm?” Qrow asked, smiling.

“Ah, yeah…” said Clover, looking a little puzzled but smiling anyway.

They drove around the streets, bass blaring out through the open windows and into the chill evening air.

“Let me know if you get cold and I’ll crank the heater some more,” Qrow shouted over the music.

Clover just laughed, “You know I grew up in Atlas, right?”

“Yeah, yeah! The sleeveless wonder, forget I asked,” Qrow grinned. “Oh, here… I know you like this one.” The song that Clover was listening to in the shower had started and Qrow turned the volume up even more.

He had to overtake a truck which was in the middle of the damn road for some reason, but once he’d got around it, he snuck a glance at Clover. He looked… baffled. Absolutely confused as hell. He did not look like a man who was having the Valentine’s Day date-of-his-life.

Ok, now panic.

Qrow looked around desperately for a place to park and pulled into a service station. He stopped between a skip and a diesel pump and cut the engine. The screaming rap suddenly became an uncomfortable silence.

“We’ve stopped,” Clover said, rather redundantly.

“Uh… yeah. What’s up, Cloves?”

“Up? Nothing. It’s nice to spend time with you,” Clover smiled and put one hand on Qrow’s knee. Always so ready to give comfort… a perfect man who deserved a perfect date. NOT whatever the hell this was turning into.

“You just don’t look like you’re having much fun, hey… I want the night to be perfect for you.”

“No, no! I love being with you no matter what we do,” Clover’s thumb made little reassuring circles on Qrow’s knee.

“Even if we listen to rap really loudly… which… you hate?” Qrow asked slowly.

“I don’t hate it! I’ve just… never been a huge fan of the genre… but if you like it then I’m sure I can learn to enjoy it more. Maybe tell me about the artist a little? Their message? If you like it then I know that there must be a lot to love,” those clear teal eyes were so full of affection.

“And the car… let me guess… you never did the driving around the block thing as a teenager? No fond memories whatsoever?”

“Well… whenever my parents took me on holiday they liked to go somewhere warmer. I spent a lot of time camping, which I adore. I don’t think I ever just drove around with my friends. We weren’t allowed to go down to Mantle much so we used to just go snowboarding or skiing… there’s not many cars in Atlas,” Clover smiled apologetically.

Qrow looked lovingly into those beautiful, deep eyes. “Damn it,” he said.

“Hey! This is still lovely, I really do want to learn more about the music, if you’ll tell me.”

“I hate the damn music,” Qrow rolled his eyes.

“Alright, I admit I’m a little lost then.”

“I thought you liked rap music! I can’t believe I stuffed this up so badly. I’m sorry Cloves, I just wanted it to be perfect for you.”

“And cars?” Clover asked, his eyes twinkling.

“I liked them when I was a kid but I never really got into the whole gearhead thing. Working on Harbinger was always much more fun.”

“So you’re telling me we have been driving around for over an hour listening to music we both hate at about a hundred decibels?”

Qrow shook his head, “Yeah, I guess that’s about the sum of it.”

Clover started to laugh.

This was dangerous because 1. Qrow was very nervous and 2. Clover had the most beautiful, bubbly, infectious laugh in all of Solitas.

Qrow couldn’t help it. He just fell apart cackling.

“Oh wow, I mean I knew I was bad at the whole romance thing but I didn’t know I was THIS terrible.”

“Come on, I haven’t laughed this much in months,” Clover beamed, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Well Happy Valentine’s babe. Maybe next year I can take you to translate old shopping lists while listening to Altesian Opera?”

“Only if it’s ear-splittingly loud,” Clover nodded seriously.

“Of course!”

“Well, then, it’s a date. Speaking of dates…”

“Can we not? The sooner I forget this, the less therapy I’ll need later,” Qrow grumbled.

“No, no, no stop trying to bury yourself, we still have lots of hours of the night left and I have not come unprepared.”

“Well at least the pressure is off you. It would be impossible for you to stuff this up more than I did,” Qrow said.

“Well, I hope that you find it romantic, anyway,” Clover smiled. “So, would you like to move on to Plan B?”

“PLEASE,” Qrow said dramatically.

“Alright baby bird, just pull out and take the next left. I’ll direct you.”

\---xxx---

Clover is absolutely trash at directing people. You would think someone like him would be a star at directing people, but apparently he just gets lost in the city. He told Qrow to take like 10 wrong turns.

Eventually they arrive outside a massive glass dome, light filtering in and reflecting off the top of it. From the parking lot you can see large trees in the dome and Qrow looks up at them, amazed.

“Where are we Clover?” asked a very curious Qrow, “A jungle?”

Clover chuckles from beside him, “That's a secret, now come on”

Clover links his arm with Qrow’s and they start walking towards the building, it isn’t too far off but Qrow decided to park like a block away.

The pair eventually arrives at the door and they walk in, Clover pays, and they enter a small chamber, the doors shutting behind them before the ones in front open and they walk in. Both of them look around the room amazed at the sheer beauty of it. Qrow takes a step forward and freezes up in his place.

Clover walks behind Qrow and wraps his arms around him, resting his chin on his shoulder, “What's the matter?”

“Are… these butterflies?”

Clover nods his head, “Yeah! Beautiful creatures they are.”

Then one flies over and lands on Qrow. A blue morpho. Qrow screams and breaks out in a sprint across the sidewalk. From Clover’s view it looks like he just got lit on fire and wants to run to water instead of just dropping and rolling like a normal person.

Clover walks after him who is on the other side to a Qrow who is squeezing his eyes shut, “You scared all the butterflies off, Qrow.”

Qrow nods, “That's fine by me, can we please leave?”

Clover looks to the door in front of Qrow, “To be honest I’m not sure if we can leave. I think the doors open in intervals of 15 minutes. So we have around 13 minutes till we can get out of here.”

Qrow sighs, “As long as they don’t land on me I think I’ll be okay. It is a beautiful place here.”

Clover laughs and helps Qrow up to a standing position, “Well then, we can just admire the view, and the butterflies from afar. I’ll make sure none of them touch you.”

So they work their way back around the sidewalk, Clover making sure none of the butterflies touch Qrow, but enjoying the view that the inside of the glass dome provides. For Qrow, it is one of those strangely beautiful things. The fear of being inside, but the beauty that it brings. Overtime, he calms down to the point where he can truly enjoy what is inside of here.

He never knew why he was afraid of butterflies. Maybe it was the way they gazed at him with an seemingly evil glare. Or something that seemed too innocent and peaceful for him to realize.

“Is this that bad?” Clover asks.

Qrow shakes his head, “They stay away from me? Nope not that bad. It’s amazing in here.”

The doors eventually open and they leave, giving their thanks, they step outside where Qrow relaxes the tension out of his shoulders. “That turned out well but I have to ask… was there any reason you picked butterflies? Specifically butterflies?”

Clover blinks, “Well, actually I asked Tai what you would enjoy and he said butterflies were a favorite of yours…”

“Did he now?” Qrow says, scowling. “He was the one who told me you loved rap too.”

“Are you serious? _Tai_.”

“I’m going to kill that bastard.”

\---xxx---

It was nice in the kitchen in the afternoon. On a warm day, sunshine streamed in through the bay windows and bathed the wooden floor in liquid gold. Qrow warmed his hands on his hot mug of coffee and smiled. He certainly felt a lot better about the world than he had when he was screaming away from those nasty little bulging-eyed creeps the night before.

“It was nice of you to arrange this at such short notice,” Clover said, smiling at Summer.

“It was no problem, Clover. It only seemed fair. I can’t believe Tai went to all that effort to sabotage your Valentine’s plans!”

“You think he’d have his hands full on Valentine’s Day already,” Raven smirked.

Qrow choked on his coffee but he recovered. He would really rather not think about his sister and her two partners and their Valentine’s plans.

“Was it hard to get him to go along with it?” Clover asked, taking a sip of his green tea.

“No, idiot fell for it hook, line and sinker,” Raven scoffed. “All his brains are in hi..”

“Excellent!” Qrow cut in quickly, “Glad it wasn’t too much hassle.”

“Not at all,” Summer smiled. “With such a great sense of humour, I’m sure he’s having a wonderful time.”

Raven chuckled, “Yeah, I bet he’s thrilled.”

“So,” Qrow shrugged, “should we head out for a bite to eat? There’s usually about a thousand cake sales after the whole Valentine’s Day storm has broken.”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Summer beamed. “I love cake!”

“We know,” Qrow laughed.

“I’ll just get my jacket,” Raven said. A minute later she was back and they were heading out the door.

Clover hesitated on the threshold, “I know this was the plan but are you sure he’ll be ok up there?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Raven waved.

“He hasn’t been there long,” Summer said. “If we make it a short trip he should be fine. Anyway, it’s about time he learned that some things aren’t a laughing matter,” she lectured.

“Not like anyone nearly had a freaking heart attack,” Qrow muttered.

“Alright then,” Clover shrugged. “Let’s go get us some cake!”

The door closed loudly behind them and the silence slowly filled the house, filtering up the stairs and pouring under the bedroom door. Tai turned his head, straining for a sound, any sound at all. But there was nothing.

The bolas were tight but if he turned carefully, he could just about face the door.

For some reason, he felt a little spike of nerves where he heard what he thought was the sound of a car in the drive. “Uh… this is fun and all but how long do you need to get changed? Uhhhh Summer? Raven?”

“Ladies?”

“Anyone?”

“Hellllooooooooo…?”

Suddenly Qrow burst into the room.

“Ah, Qrow…” Tai stuttered out, embarrassed. He was only in his boxers after all. “Could you maybe help me out here?”

“Hey Tai! I just forgot this one super important thing,” Qrow smiled down at him.

“The keys to the bolas are just ove… what?” Tai asked, baffled.

“Here you go!” Qrow beamed down at him. In his hand he held a pretty paper sculpture of a bright blue butterfly. Qrow pressed the paper to the tip of Tai’s nose, where it stuck. Slowly Tai realised that with his hands and his feet cuffed, he couldn’t even reach his own nose to take it off.

“Look, Qrow, I’m sorry! I just thought it would be funny, ok? Let me go!”

Qrow opened the door and turned back. Then he pulled out his scroll and took a picture.

“Qrow! Don’t leave me here like this! Come on!”

Qrow let the grin slowly light his face with joy. “What’s the problem, Tai?” he said, “I thought that you loved butterflies.”

And then he gave a cheerful wave and bounced down the steps, out the door and away into a world which was suddenly that much brighter.

\---xxx---


End file.
